Detroit's streetlight overhaul could be done in 2 years; neighborhoods 1st on list

Jan. 21, 2014

Detroit lighting department worker Leonard Robinson checks a light on Warren on lights Oct. 14, 2013. Lighting officials are pushing to accelerate the project to re-light Detroit/. Neighborhoods could be relamped within 18 months. Once the neighborhood work is completed, crews would focus on fixing all thoroughfare streetlights. / Romain Blanquart/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Business Writer

The Public Lighting Authority of Detroit is looking to speed up its street-lighting overhaul and relight the city in as few as two years instead of three.

Odis Jones, the authority’s executive director, announced Tuesday that he is recommending the authority’s new board of directors accelerate the project and finish relamping all neighborhoods in the city within 18 months. Once the neighborhood work is completed, crews would focus on fixing all thoroughfare streetlights.

The lighting authority’s former five-member board aimed to finish both tasks by late 2016. Under the new recommended timetable, the work would be completed much sooner.

Detroit’s street-lighting overhaul is expected to cost more than $150 million

Lighting Authority spokesman Bob Berg said the accelerated schedule is not expected to add cost to the project; it would involve hiring about the same number of contractors, only in a shorter timeframe.

The proposed acceleration follows concerns by Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr about the pace of the street-lighting work, which began this fall in two neighborhood-size demonstration areas on the city’s east and west side.

Orr is said to have pressed for the complete replacement of the authority’s original board members earlier this month.

The lighting authority, whose finances are separate from the city, plans to borrow about $210 million to undertake the project. The authority obtained $60 million in short-term financing last year and hopes to issue about $150 million in bonds later this year to both repay that loan and proceed with the remaining work.

The overhaul calls for rebuilding the old lighting system while pruning the number of street and alley lights, from about 88,000 to around 46,000. It was estimated last year that as many as 40% of the city’s streetlights were not working.

The lighting authority could vote as early as Jan. 29 on a new ZIP code schedule for completing the overhaul work. The current schedule is based on the three-year timetable.

In addition, Jones said Tuesday that he is recommending that contractor crews stop installing traditional high-pressure sodium fixtures in the demonstration areas and complete the work with modern LED lights.

The lighting authority voted last month to use all LED fixtures during the broader overhaul phase.